---
title: "Fox Cloud API usage"
description: "How Check My Solar keeps Fox Cloud API usage low with caching, while keeping live solar data as fresh as possible."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://checkmy.solar/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Fox Cloud API usage

**Check My Solar is built to use Fox Cloud sparingly.** We cache aggressively on our servers so most requests never reach Fox. Live data on the **Today** view is the exception: that is kept as fresh as we reasonably can.

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## The short answer

| Data type | Approach |
|-----------|----------|
| **Live energy flow** (solar, battery, grid, house right now) | Fetched regularly and kept fresh - typically every couple of minutes on the Today view |
| **Today’s charts and totals** | Cached briefly, then refreshed; not re-fetched on every screen tap |
| **Past days, weeks, months, years** | Cached for hours or longer - historical data does not change, so we rarely call Fox again |
| **Device list, forecasts, notifications** | Fetched on a schedule or when needed, with caching in between |

Most of what you see in the app is served from **Check My Solar’s cache**, not a fresh Fox Cloud call every time.

---

## How we keep Fox API usage low

### Server-side caching

When one user loads your inverter’s data, the result is stored in Check My Solar’s cache. The next request for the same data - from you or from background jobs such as daily reports - is served from cache until it expires. That means browsing back through last month’s charts does not trigger a new Fox API call for every view.

### Historical data stays cached

Past dates are effectively fixed. Week, month, and year views use long cache lifetimes, and completed years can be stored for a very long time. If you open the same period again, we usually already have it.

### Smarter fetching

- **Week views** can be built from cached month data instead of making separate Fox requests.
- **Invalid or empty responses** from Fox are not cached, so we do not lock in bad data.
- **Stale fallbacks** let the app show the last good reading if Fox is slow or briefly unavailable, instead of hammering the API.

### Request deduplication and rate limiting

The app avoids duplicate in-flight requests when you switch tabs quickly. On our servers, we also pace outbound calls to Fox Cloud so we do not burst the same endpoint repeatedly.

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## What stays fresh

Live data is the one area where freshness matters most.

- The **Live Energy Flow** on the Today dashboard uses a dedicated lightweight endpoint so you see current production and flows quickly.
- On **Today**, live and chart data refresh on a regular cadence (about every two minutes) while you keep the app open.
- If you use the optional **[Modbus Bridge](/docs/using-the-app/modbus-bridge/)** with an H1 G2 inverter, live numbers can update about every **10 seconds** from your home network, with far less reliance on Fox Cloud for realtime telemetry.

We deliberately do **not** cache live data for long. When you are watching your system in real time, we prioritise up-to-date figures over saving API calls.

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## If Fox Cloud rate-limits your account

Fox Cloud enforces daily API limits per account. If those limits are reached - from Check My Solar, the Fox ESS app, or anything else using your key - you may see a temporary slowdown or a message that live data will return shortly.

Check My Solar is designed to recover gracefully: we back off, use cached data where appropriate, and resume live fetching when Fox allows it again.

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## See your current API usage

You can check how much of your Fox daily allowance has been used:

1. Open **Menu → Account Settings**.
2. Open **Fox Cloud API usage** (or **API limits**).

This reads the usage counter from Fox Cloud for your linked account. It is shared across anything using that API key, not just Check My Solar.

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## Related pages

- [Get your Fox ESS API key](/docs/getting-started/get-api-fox-ess-cloud-key/)
- [Where the numbers come from](/docs/guides/where-solar-numbers-come-from-fox-cloud/)
- [Dashboard overview](/docs/using-the-app/dashboard-overview/)
- [Modbus Bridge](/docs/using-the-app/modbus-bridge/)
- [Support](/docs/reference/support/)

Source: https://checkmy.solar/docs/reference/api-usage/index.mdx